Review of Mad Max (1979) by Aaron H — 18 Feb 2015

Excluding Katy Perry: Part Of Me, this is the single greatest film ever made.

The film takes place in a dystopian future Australia, law and order has begun to break down following a major energy crisis. A berserk motorcycle gang member, named Crawford "Nightrider" Montazano, is attempting to outrun MFP officers in a stolen Pursuit Special. While he does manage to escape, the badass titular character, by the name of Max Rockatansky, engages the less-skilled Nightrider in a high-speed chase, which ends up killing the Nightrider in a fiery explosion.

The Nightrider's gang, The Acolytes, have rode into a small town, vandalizing property, stealing fuel, and terrorizing the population. After a young couple witness a man, tied to a motorcycle and being dragged halfway down the town, they hastily try to escape. However, they accidentally hit the Acolytes' leader, the Toecutter, he, along with the other gang members, follow them, destroy their car, and rape them.

Max and fellow officer Jim "Goose" Rains arrest Toecutter's young protégé, Johnny "the Boy" Boyle, who was too high to leave the scene. When neither the rape victim nor any of the townspeople show for Johnny's trial, the federal courts throw out the case. Goose, furious at Johnny's release, must be restrained as he and Johnny exchange violent threats. After Bubba drags Johnny away, MFP Captain Fred "Fifi" Macaffee tells his officers to do whatever it takes to combat the gangs, "so long as the paperwork's clean.".

A short time later, Johnny sabotages Goose's motorcycle. The next day, the motorcycle locks up at high speed, throwing Goose into a field. An uninjured Goose borrows a ute to haul his damaged bike back to the MFP HQ. However, Johnny and Toecutter are waiting in ambush, with the former throwing a brake rotor at Goose's windscreen, causing him to crash the ute. With Goose unable to get out of the ute, Johnny - under pressure from Toecutter - throws a match into the gasoline leaking from the wreck, triggering an inferno that severely burns the helpless Goose. After seeing Goose's charred body in a hospital intensive care unit, Max becomes disillusioned with the MFP, and the fear of losing his sanity convinces him to resign. His superior, Fifi, talks Max into taking a holiday before making his final decision about the resignation.

While vacationing, Max stops at a roadside garage to have a tire repaired while his wife, Jessie, and their infant son, Sprog, go for ice cream. The two encounter Toecutter's gang, who attempt to molest Jessie. Max and his family flee to a remote farm owned by an elderly friend named May, but the gang learns of their destination from the garage mechanic and follows them. Jessie is waylaid by the gang after a trip to the beach; May holds them off with a shotgun and she, Jessie, and Sprog manage to escape in the van. Unfortunately, the van breaks down, and Jessie tries to escape with Sprog on foot, but are killed by the pursuing gang. Max arrives too late to intervene.

This is it. This is where he loses it. With Sprog killed instantly and Jessie near-death, Max has lost everything. His job, his family, and his sanity. He has become the shell of a man. There is only one thing in the world he has to live for. Revenge.

With his police leathers and a supercharged black Pursuit Special (In real life, it is a Ford XB Falcon), he sets off, with nothing on his mind but to slaughter the gang that killed his family.

After torturing the auto mechanic from earlier for information, and forcing several members of the gang off a bridge at high speed, Max methodically hunts down the gang's leaders. However, he sustains a significant gunshot leg-injury from Johnny, and has his arm run over by Bubba Zanetti and the Toecutter.

He (Painfully) gets up and shoots Bubba at point blank range with a shotgun, though Johnny escapes when he sees Bubba killed. As Toecutter flees, tailed closely by Max, he veers into the path of an oncoming semi-trailer truck and is brutally run-over.

Max eventually locates Johnny, who is looting a car crash victim he presumably murdered. In a cold, suppressed rage, Max handcuffs Johnny's ankle to the wrecked vehicle, and sets a crude time-delay fuse involving a slow fuel leak and Johnny's lighter. Throwing Johnny a hacksaw, Max leaves him the choice of sawing through either the handcuffs (which will take ten minutes) or his ankle (which will take five minutes). As Max casually drives away, the wrecked vehicle explodes, with Johnny's fate left unknown. Max drives on to points unknown, pushing deep into the Outback.

With only a $400,000 budget, Mad Max accomplishes brilliant stunts, three sequels, and lacks any Hollywood cliches. Fury Road sits at #1 on my most anticipated 2015 films list, and, since it comes out around the same time as my 18th birthday, I also plan to be the first in line to see it in the jaw-dropping IMAX that it's supposed to be seen in.

10/10.